The Events Leading Up Of The World 's Most Experienced Climbers, Lost Their Lives

The expedition guides show arrogance and pride while trying to climb Mount Everest. At one point Scott Fischer states that he has "built a yellow brick road to the summit" (Krakauer 86). Fischer has great pride in his ability to climb Everest he developed arrogance towards the mountain. It is foolish to think that someone

The entire journey up the mountain is full of danger. You constantly have to worry about the oxygen you are getting and people around you are dying. The air is thin and if there is any air, it’s contaminated. You have to worry about getting the disease H.A.P.E. You have to worry about your health 24/7. You have to get past impossible obstacles. You just have to be strong. Climbing the mountain is an endless, painful battle. No matter what is happening outside of the mountain, on Mount Everest all that matters is Survival.

In order to continue climbing Everest, many aspects of climbing need to be improved before more people endanger their lives to try and reach the roof of the world. The guides have some areas that need the most reform. During the ascension of Everest the guides made a plethora mistakes that seemed insignificant but only aided in disaster. The guides first mistake is allowing “any bloody idiot [with enough determination] up” Everest (Krakauer 153). By allowing “any bloody idiot” with no climbing experience to try and climb the most challenging mountain in the world, the guides are almost inviting trouble. Having inexperienced climbers decreases the trust a climbing team has in one another, causing an individual approach to climbing the mountain and more reliance on the guides. While this approach appears fine, this fault is seen in addition to another in Scott Fischer’s expedition Mountain Madness. Due to the carefree manner in which the expedition was run, “clients [moved] up and down the mountain independently during the acclimation period, [Fischer] had to make a number of hurried, unplanned excursions between Base Camp and the upper camps when several clients experienced problems and needed to be escorted down,” (154). Two problems present in the Mountain Madness expedition were seen before the summit push: the allowance of inexperienced climbers and an unplanned climbing regime. A third problem that aided disaster was the difference in opinion in regards to the responsibilities of a guide on Everest. One guide “went down alone many hours ahead of the clients” and went “without supplemental oxygen” (318). These three major issues: allowing anyone up the mountain, not having a plan to climb Everest and differences in opinion. All contributed to the disaster on Everest in

Being responsible is a huge factor in guiding a mountain climbing team. There are a lot people on each team, and some are more experienced then others, so it takes a lot of coordination and cooperation from everyone. Rob Hall, because of his experience, knew he was responsible for making sure that everyone on his team was prepared for the summit of Everest. With that knowledge Rob Hall utilized his organization skills and "he'd fine-tuned a remarkably effective acclimatization plan" (p.74) that would enable all members of the team to adapt to the scarcity of oxygen in the atmosphere. Along with making sure he had an arrangement for how to acclimatize his team he also managed to consult "with the leaders of all the expeditions planning to climb Everest in the spring," and they agreed on which team "would be responsible for establishing and maintaining a route through the icefall" (p.80). Rob Hall had a very heavy load that he was responsible for as a guide in 1996 and he demonstrated how reliable he was in the way he took care of business using his ability to plan ahead and stay organized.

“A trans-like state settles over your efforts, the climb becomes a clear eyed dream.” Stated Krakauer in The Devils Thumb. Mountain climbing has become a popular interest for thrill-seekers in modern times. It is an immensely challenging activity, involving strength, determination, and the proper mindset. There are many accounts of mountain climbers heroically reaching the summit of mountains, but none more striking than that of Everest and The Devils Thumb. These are gut wrenching, first hand accounts of some of the greatest feats performed in mountain climbing history, although they are each different in their own way. Krakauer was climbing to find himself amongst the frozen rocks and chest deep snow, and Weihnmayer climbed to push his limits, and to accomplish what many thought to be the impossible.

Lack of psychological safety within the team members failed to fix cognitive bias of irrationality. If members developed trust within the team, cognitive bias could have been prevented or at least minimized. The truth that climbers might make irrational decisions and find it hard to turn back when they are so closed to the summit was obvious, but teammates seeing this problem did not speak up since they did not feel that their thoughts were welcome and felt uneasy. More cognitive biases could also been prevented to lessen the complex system of the expedition. Since climbing Mt. Everest is already a high risk venture, any additional problems such as irrational decisions can cause a crisis. Using the early sign of issues with Hall’s team’s progress, it was obvious that the probability of failing the expedition was high before the team even started. Hall could have used the issues as a sign of the complex systems that exist, and could have used this knowledge to prevent any irrational decisions. The complex systems and the lack of psychological safety also contributed to the tragedy. The team members failed to communicate and trust each other, which then added more problems to the complex systems. For instance, Boukreev’s could have spoken up to his team leader, Fischer, about his concerns regarding his team members lacking experience to begin with. By speaking up, he could have prevented more chain reaction due to lack of communications and feedback within the

Despite his impressive record he had never attempted anything close to the scale of Everest, whose summit is at an extremely dangerous altitude. He even admits to his relative inexperience with high altitude saying, “Truth be told, I’d never been higher than 17,200 feet--not even as high as Everest Base Camp”(28). Krakauer also mentions how he has gotten out of shape over the years partially because of the lack of climbing in his life, making him even less prepared for the assent. Krakauer shows a definite fear of such a high mountain, referring to climbers who have perished in the past. He states that, “Many of those who died had been far stronger and possessed vastly more high-altitude experience than I.” (28). Even though Krakauer’s experience may be more relevant to the Everest assent than some of the other tourist climbers, it is nowhere near the level needed to be considered an elite climber.

Before reading this book, I had already been aware of the countless dangers of Mt. Everest. Last summer I read a book about Mt. Everest much like this one in the state that both were spoken through personal accounts, and both used constant detail to express the horrible and painful experiences that both authors had to go through. This prior knowledge helped better my understanding of this book because I was aware of the common occurrences that can take place while climbing Mt. Everest, and the gruesome circumstances that go with it. During the eighth chapter, readers become aware of a horrible condition that a character is dealing with. “By the time he arrived at the tents late that afternoon Ngawang was delirious, stumbling like a drunk, and coughing up pink, blood-laced froth” (Krakauer 113).

The article states “The youngest is an American boy who made the climb when he was 13 years old; the oldest is a Japanese woman who was 73 years old when she made her second successful climb.” That explains how people all over the earth, big and small can climb mount everest and also can have a success time. Another example from the article is “ In 1953, the New Zealander Edmund Hillary and the Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first people to reach the 29,035-foot peak of Mount Everest. Since that time, nearly 4,000 other people have successfully scaled the world’s highest mountain.” This quote is perfect example why people want to climb mount everest and why it's possible. The quote say

In 1996, any person could challenge themselves to climb Mt. Everest, and that was not a very smart decision. “...ushering a gaggle of relatively inexperienced amateurs […] into an apparent death trap?”(1.8) This speaks about how the government rules were so lenient that people would walk in just to find themselves dead. People without the proper training and vitals such as immune system were able to risks their lives for an achievement. There should be some type of background check to see who is a caple to climb the mountain because people will die, such as they did die. Nepal was careless to let people who aren't up or ready for the risks up the

Lens: Climbing Enthusiasts In this essay there will be talks from climbing enthusiasts about how people should be able to climb Mount Everest on their own will. There are many reasons for people to climb Mount Everest. Including for the adventure and the sense of achievement. But there are many people that don’t think climbing enthusiasts should climb Mount Everest because of medical reasons.

Have you ever wanted to climb Mount Everest, to be able to say that you overcame obstacles of the environment and became a stronger percent? A complication that has been discussed recently is about whether or not the repercussions of mountaineering outweigh the achievements that derive from mountaineering. As said in “Keep Everest Open”, on the day of April 18th, 2014 there was an avalanche that killed sixteen Nepalese people on Mount Everest. When these catastrophes occur taxpayer money is used to search for the missing and many do not want their taxpayer money to go towards this. It is true that there are many risks that come with climbing Mount Everest such as, loss of oxygen and hypothermia, yet there are also many rewards and achievements

The urgency to sell adventure to anyone who would pay or bring publicity was not the only stressor Hall and Fisher were under. Another factor was the amount of pressure on both of the guides to run a successful business. Although they were friends, they were also rivals. The previous year, Hall failed to actually get any of his clients to the top of the mountain. Fisher, while he was a well-respected climber and had even scaled Everest without oxygen, had never led a guided tour before. He was set on obtaining a few high-profile clients to get his business off the ground. Both men were under tremendous pressure to do well this season. This contributed to their decision to push past the deadlines to turn back, as well as to bring unprepared clients.

The Everest simulation, a team of five (or six if an observer is present) with diferrent roles, communicate and work together to produce decisions to climb to the peak of mount Everest, while trying to accomplish their own respective goals as well as the team’s goals. Our team of six, named The Rock Stars, are required to finish two sessions of the simulation, one of which we have to complete as a virtual team, meaning that each members must do the simulation at the same while being in diferrent locations, and the other as a standard face to face team. This report will analyze and discuss the issues that the team faced during the two simulations, and how those issues reflects to business theories, such as Tuckman’s theory of group development, McGrath’s theory of team effectiveness, and Kirkman & Malthieu’s argument about teams. This report will also use Neubert’s empirical research about informal leaders to analyze the leadership structure that is present in the team, and wether informal leaders are present, and lastly, this report will contain my personal reflections and the things I have learned throughout the simulations as a team member.

Description of Problems: As the Mount Everest Simulation progressed everyone was excited as how the climb would be and what decisions would the team make to progress the climb. There were total 5 camps in which the 5th camp was the Mount Everest. The leader and the whole team had to decide at whether on which camp we should rest and when to go up. Since I was the Environmental Scientist and I had a bit of anxious medical history while climbing the mountains which no one ever knew till yet that I would be needing the medical assistence as well.